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The Cockroach Dance

Here in Florida, we have a lot of
cockroaches. They're so prevalent that they've been made the state bird
(almost). If you're a native like me, you learn to cope with these
beasts in unique ways. You can't just step on the darned things; they
apparently have some kind of special sense that makes them able to feel
the breeze your foot makes on the way down, so they can scurry out of
the way. You have to learn to anticipate and stomp (or smack) where
they're going to be a millisecond later.

I
was reminded of this part of my heritage this week because we had a
fundy atheist show up on my YouTube channel who goes by "Golf Mania." He
turned out to be a specialist in what I called the Cockroach Dance.
What I mean is, he'd raise up some standard fundy atheist objection; for
example, the old "most prison inmates are Christians" routine. I'd slap
that down with an answer. Then he'd ignore what I said in answer and
haul out some other standard canard from the fundy atheist arsenal. Not
once did he ever so much as try to answer anything I presented in reply
to him.

What
does it mean when someone does the Cockroach Dance? More than anything
else, it suggests an unmitigated arrogance. The fundy atheist (or
whoever) who does the Cockroach Dance expects his or her opponents to be
unable to answer their points, and to immediately shut up or succumb.
They don't have any sort of second line of defense prepared because they
haven't anticipated any answers. That, in turn, is because they simply
accepted that argument themselves completely uncritically and didn't
bother checking it for flaws.

It's
really no surprise that this kind of thing happens on YouTube; it's
just what to expect given the class of fundy atheist that does business
there. In this case, Golf Mania happens to be a followers of one of the
biggest Cockroach Dancers on YouTube, a guy who called himself
DarkMatter2525. Dark makes decent computer-animated videos, but you need
only watch a few of his vids to see that he's ultimately shallow, never
does serious research, and is more interested in making jokes at the
expense of the Biblical narrative (or of fundamentalism) than he is
arriving at the truth of a matter. I once challenged Dark to take a test
to see how well he understood Christian scholarship. He found excuses
not to do so.Golf Mania made a big deal of the fact that Dark's vids have hundreds of thousands of views. As I said in reply, and to which Golf had no answer...so do vids on how the moon landings were faked.

> JP's piece is not ridicule of bullying, It is criticism, there is difference. Criticism can be valid, bullying is not. Notice did not single out a particular person and he didn't call Nyone names.

He likens atheists to cockroaches. His more recent post "The Banana: Proof of Atheism!" clearly does single out a specific person. Oh, and see the comment above for JP calling someone a name. Okay, it is a spammer, but you do not have to look far in the comments of his posts to see him insulting other people.

Fact is, JP Holding treats a lot of people with contempt. That is fine, it is not like his religion tells him not to... Oh, wait. Well, anyway, it is not like my religion tells him not to, and I can (and do) hold him is similar contempt.

Joe, you have an abrasive posting style, but I know you do respect people like IMS and me. Be careful you do not get tarred with the same brush as JP when you try to support him.

"What does it mean when someone does the Cockroach Dance? More than anything else, it suggests an unmitigated arrogance. The fundy atheist (or whoever) who does the Cockroach Dance expects his or her opponents to be unable to answer their points, and to immediately shut up or succumb."

the atheist is doing the dance he;snot a coach roach. He can't be calling them coach roaches if they are doing the dance they stepping on the roaches,

JPH: "... a guy who called himself DarkMatter2525. Dark makes decent computer-animated videos, but you need only watch a few of his vids to see that he's ultimately shallow, never does serious research, and is more interested in making jokes at the expense of the Biblical narrative (or of fundamentalism) than he is arriving at the truth of a matter."

This from a guy who has made a load of computer-animated videos, whose "banana" parody is the epitome of "shallow", and also how how JPH is "more interested in making jokes at the expense of X than he is arriving at the truth of a matter." Of course, X for JP is atheism, and so that makes it morally right in his eyes, it is just "riposte" to him and his toadies.

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